6 March 2013

community

Fire kindles church’s faith

By Kevin Boozer

When members of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Pomaria gathered on the church lawn before dawn early this year, it wasn’t for a sunrise

service. It was to watch their 75-year-old church building go up in flames. As firefighters fought valiantly to bring the fire of unknown origin under control, church members watched in horror as the educational building, then the sanctuary, and finally the bell tower and steeple succumbed to the ever-advancing flames. When the sun finally rose on January 10, all that remained of one of the oldest Lutheran churches in South Carolina was a charred shell.

6 March 2013

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Lifelong member Jerry Richardson was there amid the smoke and flames. As he gazed at the remaining granite walls, still ringed by feebly licking flames, he saw destruction and devastation. And he saw hope. “The sanctuary walls remaining upright are symbolic,” he said, “that this church was built on a strong foundation that is Jesus Christ.”

Church member Paul Werts was also there. Werts, director for the South Carolina Aeronautics Commission, has driven past the church every day for 34 years on his way to work. This day was dif-ferent. “I couldn’t stand to drive by the church and not see the cross on the steeple,” he said. In the spirit of small-town South Carolina, he decided to do something about it. Werts built a cross with several large cedar columns from a tree on his property. He and his son, Stephen, worked with community members to erect the cross in front of the burned out sanctuary.

The message of the cross inspired Pomaria, population 179. Church members sent Facebook messages, talked by phone, and visited the church grounds as they grieved their loss. They expressed a desire to hold an outdoor worship service the following Sunday and began inviting people to join them.

Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster, students, and volunteer firefighters who had helped extinguish the blaze posted Facebook messages about the church, God, and faith. Their thoughts carved out sacred space on Facebook walls usually dedicated to trivial social media chatter.

Enthusiasm for the worship service grew during the weekend as people posted photos, shared memories, wrote on each other’s Facebook walls, and invited friends. In the first week after the fire, more than 3,000 people visited the church’s Facebook page. Realizing that the regional television stations and newspapers that

had broadcasted the fire were now making plans to cover the service, St. Paul’s congregation of 370 members, many of whom live in sur-rounding Newberry County, prepared for the opportunity to show the state what it means to be the church. They recognized that with the opportunity came great responsibility.

“And on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it,”

(Matthew 16:18).

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8 March 2013

community

“It is my frequent prayer,” Pastor Brent Nichols said, “that God will help us know as we exit through the doors of the church that we are not leaving the church. We are people of God, the body of Christ going into the community and world.” The doors have been destroyed, he said, but the calling to be the church remained just as true as it had the previous Thursday.

Under a clear blue sky and in unseasonably warm, 60-degree weath-er, almost 600 people came together as a family to worship against the backdrop of the burned out building. In a moving display of solidarity and support, more than half of those attending were community members not affiliated with St. Paul’s. Nichols spoke of the new cross and the victory it represented.

“The cross is a symbol of victory, not defeat,” he said. “It is the victory of God over life, death, sin and everything that is opposed to God. Some two thousand years ago, the powers that be thought they had that problem of this Jesus nailed down. Nailed down to a cross. A few days later, they found out differently when God rolled the stone away. God had the final word. So, despite our grief and loss, we gather today as a victorious people.”

Seated on lawn chairs brought from home and folding chairs bor-rowed from Whitaker Funeral Home of Newberry, congregants sang timeless songs of faith and perseverance. “The Church’s One Foundation.” “On Eagle’s Wings.” “A Mighty Fortress.” And “Built on a Rock the Church Shall Stand (even when steeples are fall-ing).” As they sang of God raising his people on eagles’ wings, of the power of God over all forces opposed to him, and of the solid

foundation on which the church is built, some members wiped away tears. Herman Yoos, Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s South Carolina Synod, spoke of how a new church build-ing would rise from the ashes, just as one did in 1786 when St. Paul’s first church building, a log structure, was destroyed by fire just 25 years into the congregation’s existence. That early church played a significant role establishing the Lutheran Church in the Carolinas.

Yoos reminded congregants they were sitting on land that had been a 68-acre grant from King George III of England. St. Paul was the first Lutheran church established in the Newberry area of South Carolina. In the 19th century, it organized five other Lutheran churches in the area: Colony, Mt. Tabor, Bachman Chapel, Mt. Pilgrim, and Grace. In the 1970s the church was instrumental in creating Lutheran Church Youth in the South Carolina Synod.

While acknowledging that the Church is made of people, not buildings, Nichols talked about the loss of the building. “We can look behind us and say that this is just a building, but we know that is not true. It is more than a building. We speak of the Holy Bible, Holy Communion, and Holy Baptism. That church building is something that is holy and sacred, and is set apart for God and for God’s purposes.”

An all-loving God does not cause church fires, Yoos said. Still, an all-present, all-loving God remains at work in the midst of tragedy.

And now St. Paul Lutheran Church begins a long rebuilding effort. The sanctuary walls were saved, but the rest must be rebuilt. The

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church will also build a new educational building to replace the one that was destroyed. Insurance will cover some of the cost, but the remainder will come from gifts and donations—donations like the $41.01 that started the restoration fund.

Shortly after the fire, a four-year-old girl and her mother knocked on the parsonage door. In the child’s hands were the contents of her piggy bank. A student at the Christian preschool where Nichols’ wife Lynn teaches, the girl told her mother she was sad “Mrs. Lynn’s” church had burned. They stopped by the parson-age, next door to the burned church building, to present her donation. For this congregation, such contributions are evidence the Lord will provide.

The St. Paul Lutheran community of believers is committed to carrying out the call of the church, regardless of where they worship. They have a temporary home at the old Pomaria Elementary School and may worship again on the front lawn of their property Easter morning. Building or no building, the com-munity of faith will continue to gather as a victorious people. As they think of ashes and rebirth, of Lenten journeys and the joy of an empty tomb, together they will proclaim, “The Lord is risen. He is risen indeed!”

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To donate toward St. Paul Restoration Fund, make checks payable to:

The St. Paul Restoration Fund First Community Bank

P O Box 417

Newberry, SC 29108

To follow the congregation’s rebuilding efforts, visit www.stpaulpomaria.com or the church’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/stpaulpomaria.

St. Paul Lutheran Church will continue to meet at 11 a.m. in the old Pomaria School Auditorium, 138 Folk Street, Pomaria. All are welcome to join the congrega-tion for worship.

Kevin Boozer is a reporter for The Newberry Observer and the Herald Independent Newspapers. A lifelong member of St. Paul

Lutheran Church, he also writes for The Little Christian Magazine, for children age six and younger. His first children’s book, Scar, the Helpful Wolf was published this year in partnership with his alma mater, Newberry College. He’s been published in The Lutheran Magazine and in the Christ in Our Homes devotions series.

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